Greetings ~
John Dillinger was the 1930s version of the gentleman bandit. Witnesses to his bank robberies stated that he came in and was very polite to everyone. But he still robbed them at gunpoint.
My interest in Dillinger goes back to when I was young and would hear stories about the few times that he had come to Akron, Ohio. There was a brick two story building on the east corner of Newton Street and Route 91, (Darrow Road) where Dillinger and cronies would hold up when in town. The second floor corner apartment was used as it gave a clear view of the streets outside for blocks and police could be seen if they were around. The story goes that the apartment's rent was always payed and the furnished rooms stayed empty so they would be ready when the gang came to town.
I didn't know if I could believe the story and several years ago the building was torn down. The corner is now empty. But in the late 1960s, my cousin and I dropped into a motel restaurant for a late evening meal and met the waitress. I can't remember the name of the motel but it was located on State Road in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio just a few blocks past the High Level Bridge that was the Cuyahoga Falls / Akron border. The motel was a horseshoe shaped building and the restaurant was in the center.
When my cousin and I were having our dinner, with no one else in the place that night, the waitress began talking to us and the conversation came around to who the strangest customer she ever had. The waitress was a woman around 55 years old at the time. She told us that she was working at a steak house in downtown Akron one night in 1934. She was then 21 years old. Three men came in the place around 8:30 pm and took a booth in the back. They all had the steak dinner and talked to her. She said that the one man was very nice looking and had asked her about her and her family and asked if she liked working there. She said he was very nice but she thought at times he was getting a little personal. Finally, about an hour later they got up to leave. She said they payed for the meal and the man gave her a $3.00 tip which was a large amount of money back then. As he took his hat from the rack on the wall and put it on, he looked at her and smiled and remarked, "You can now tell your friends that you served John Dillinger his dinner." Then they left. She said she didn't know if she could believe him. A few months later, Dillinger was shot to death in Chicago and when she saw the newspaper photo, it was the same man she served dinner to.
Akron policeman, Harland Manes was shot and killed by a Pretty Boy Floyd gang member at 1:15 am on Saturday, March 8, 1930 on Kenmore Blvd. Floyd and Dillinger were friends and fellow gang members. So I have no doubt at all that the waitress waited on John Dillinger.
Another story of an Akron connection with Dillinger was when I worked for Portage Furniture in the late 1970s. Our warehouse was a large brick building across the street from the store. The owner of the building wanted an old dance floor in the basement ripped up. It was a wooden floor and was beginning to warp badly and people kept tripping. A friend and I volunteered to do the job if I could keep the wooden floor. The man told me that I could have it and that, back in the 1930s the basement was a speak easy in the city and John Dillinger was a customer. He said, "Who knows? Maybe Dillinger danced on this floor." As it turned out, I could not use the flooring as the sections were just too warped. I discarded it but kept a few sections and still have them today. If we would have had eBay back then, I probably could have sold the sections and made a bunch of money.